True Americanism 43 



are against any recognition whatever by the State in 

 any shape or form of State-aided parochial schools. 

 But we are equally opposed to any discrimination 

 against or for a man because of his creed. We de- 

 mand that all citizens, Protestant and Catholic, Jew 

 and Gentile, shall have fair treatment in every way ; 

 that all alike shall have their rights guaranteed 

 them. The very reasons that make us unqualified in 

 our opposition to State-aided sectarian schools make 

 us equally bent that, in the management of our pub- 

 lic schools, the adherents of each creed shall be given 

 exact and equal justice, wholly without regard to 

 their religious affiliations; that trustees, superin- 

 tendents, teachers, scholars, all alike, shall be treated 

 without any reference whatsoever to the creed they 

 profess. We maintain that it is an outrage, in vot- 

 ing for a man for any position, whether State or 

 national, to take into account his religious faith, 

 provided only he is a good American. When a se- 

 cret society does what in some places the American 

 Protective Association seems to have done, and tries 

 to proscribe Catholics both politically and socially, 

 the members of such society show that they them- 

 selves are as utterly un-American, as alien to our 

 school of political thought, as the worst immigrants 

 who land on our shores. Their conduct is equally 

 base and contemptible; they are the worst foes of 

 our public-school system, because they strengthen 

 the hands of its ultramontane enemies; they should 

 receive the hearty condemnation of all Americans 

 who are truly patriotic. 



